Honda is going through an electric revolution, and at the ongoing Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, the company revealed the cars it hopes will take it to the next decade. What you are looking at are the two Honda 0 Series models, the SUV and Saloon (not sedan, evidently) prototypes, that the carmaker plans to sell globally starting in 2026.
The 0 Saloon we’ve seen before, a development of the concept it showed at last year’s show. Honda has dispensed with some of the more fanciful design cues to bring the car closer to production spec – the massive gullwing doors have been replaced by four regular ones, the headlights are now vertical (and with a cool sliding cover that bring to mind the pop-up lamps of old), and the recessed display in the nose has been ditched in favour of slatted air intakes. Oh, and there’s a lidar sensor on the roof, too.
But the 0 Saloon remains a strikingly minimalist car to look at, retaining its one-box design, sweeping roofline, large rear diffuser and the concept’s party piece – a rectangular panel with “infinity” concentric taillight rings where the rear windscreen would normally be. There are also intricately designed aero covers for the wheels.
The 0 Saloon will be beaten to the market by the more conventional 0 SUV, which looks far more production ready with visible (but still flush) door handles, framed windows and a more realistic wheel and tyre package. But it still has a pleasingly clean design with minimal lines, a cockpit-like blacked-out glasshouse, huge blind spot-inducing D-pillars and a heavily-tapered rear section.
That rear section leads into a letterbox windscreen (Honda clearly believes the future should be difficult to see out the back) and U-shaped full-width taillights framing the tailgate. Moving towards the front, there’s a “visor” that hides the headlights and the daytime running light “dashes”.
Inside both cars, the minimalist theme continues with wraparound seats that look like they belong in a lounge, plus a full-width display panel with no less than five screens, including two for the side-view cameras. You also get a steering yoke, hopefully connected to a steer-by-wire system. Both cars have been designed using a new “Thin, Light and Wise” approach, maximising interior space and providing an unrestricted view out, at least out the front.
Aside from the design, Honda has also revealed some of the core technologies of the two cars, although specs remain non-existent. The 0 Series cars will be equipped with a new operating system called Asimo OS, taking its name from the company’s iconic humanoid robot. The development of Honda’s robotics technologies since that project ended have enabled the recognition of external surroundings and the ability for a system to act by understanding the intentions of other people.
Honda says it intends to combine Asimo technologies with advanced AI to deliver unique experiences for software defined vehicles (SDVs). To that end, the cars will feature integrated control of ECUs for systems such as driver assists and infotainment, while the software – including even the integrated control of vehicle dynamics – can be updated over the air to add new features and services.
Speaking of driver assists, the 0 Series cars will come with eyes-off Level 3 automated driving functionality, Honda having pioneered the system with Honda Sensing Elite in the Japan-only Legend Hybrid EX. The system will see a wider release with these cars, utilising original AI tech that combines behaviour models from experienced drivers with unsupervised learning tech from AI firm Helm.ai.
Meanwhile, cooperative AI will improve the precision of interactions with other road users, such as yielding the right of way to others on the road, which even human drivers (especially in Malaysia) struggle with. As such, the availability of the system will be expanded to include more driving conditions starting with congested highways, with more being added through OTA updates. Honda plans to become the first carmaker to provide eyes-off automated driving in all situations, which won’t be an easy feat.
Looking even further into the future, the next generation of 0 Series models planned to be launched in the late 2020s (i.e. not the Saloon or SUV) will feature a bespoke high-performance processor developed with Renesas. These systems-on-a-chip (SoCs) will feature a centralised electrical and electronic architecture combining multiple ECUs, using a single control unit to manage various vehicle functions.
To achieve this, a multi-die chipset will combine Renesas’ generic fifth-generation R-Car X5 SoC series with Honda’s AI accelerator, enabling it to perform 2,000 tera operations per second (TOPS) with a power efficiency of 20 TOPS per watt.
As for charging, in the US at least Honda is working with seven other carmakers on the Ionna charging network, with the goal of having at least 30,000 chargers in the country by 2030. The cars will also adopt Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) that will give owners access to over 100,000 charging stations by 2030. Meanwhile, new charging service that uses Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) generative AI tech will allow the cars to find charging facilities more efficiently and simplify payments.
Then there’s Honda Smart Charge, currently offered in North America, which combines a home energy management system co-developed with Emporia with vehicle grid integration (VGI) developed by ChargeScape, a joint venture with BMW and Ford. This will allow the cars to charge themselves when electricity tariffs are low and renewable energy is being used, and channel power back into the home when tariffs are high, reducing the electricity bill of the entire household.
The Honda 0 SUV is expected to go on sale in the US in the first half of 2026, with the 0 Saloon following later in the year. They will then enter global markets including Japan and Europe later on.
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